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Crop Production for Advanced Life Support Systems - Observations From the Kennedy Space Center Breadboard ProjectThe use of plants for bioregenerative life support for space missions was first studied by the US Air Force in the 1950s and 1960s. Extensive testing was also conducted from the 1960s through the 1980s by Russian researchers located at the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, and the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow. NASA initiated bioregenerative research in the 1960s (e.g., Hydrogenomonas) but this research did not include testing with plants until about 1980, with the start of the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) Program. The NASA CELSS research was carried out at universities, private corporations, and NASA field centers, including Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The project at KSC began in 1985 and was called the CELSS Breadboard Project to indicate the capability for plugging in and testing various life support technologies; this name has since been dropped but bioregenerative testing at KSC has continued to the present under the NASA s Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program. A primary objective of the KSC testing was to conduct pre-integration tests with plants (crops) in a large, atmospherically closed test chamber called the Biomass Production Chamber (BPC). Test protocols for the BPC were based on observations and growing procedures developed by university investigators, as well as procedures developed in plant growth chamber studies at KSC. Growth chamber studies to support BPC testing focused on plant responses to different carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, different spectral qualities from various electric lamps, and nutrient film hydroponic culture techniques.
Document ID
20030032422
Acquisition Source
Kennedy Space Center
Document Type
Technical Memorandum (TM)
Authors
Wheeler, R. M. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Sager, J. C. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Prince, R. P. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Knott, W. M. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Mackowiak, C. L. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Stutte, G. W. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Yorio, N. C. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Ruffe, L. M. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Peterson, B. V. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Goins, G. D. (Dynamac Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Date Acquired
September 8, 2013
Publication Date
February 1, 2003
Subject Category
Man/System Technology And Life Support
Report/Patent Number
NASA/TM-2003-211184
NAS 1.15:211184
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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